LSU Gold

Coppola and Nuss become volleyballmag.com All-Americans

by Grant Kauvar
+0
Coppola and Nuss become volleyballmag.com All-Americans

BATON ROUGE – Claire Coppola and Kristen Nuss of LSU beach volleyball were named to the volleyballmag.com first-team All-America squad for their impressive 2018 season, the magazine announced on Monday.

The LSU duo garnered All-America honors by the AVCA earlier in May, making this the second All-America team for Coppola and Nuss to be named to.

Coppola and Nuss were one of three LSU pairs to travel to Hermosa Beach, California, May 10-12, to compete against elite pairs from 19 other universities in the USAV Collegiate Beach Championship. After going 1-1 in pool play, the LSU duo went undefeated in bracket play with a 5-0 record and won the championship and the honor to represent the United States at the FISU World University Games July 9-13 in Munich, Germany.

The sophomore duo finished the regular season with a 25-7 mark which included 14 wins over pairs from ranked competition and four against top-10 competition. In just two seasons at LSU, the pair has played more than 85 percent of its matches on the top court and has amassed 58 victories placing them in a tie for sixth on the Tiger’s all-time wins’ list.

After being named to the CCSA Preseason All-Conference team, Coppola and Nuss earned CCSA Pair of the Week twice after defeating three pairs from top-15 competition and going 4-0 at both the GCU Beach Tournament on opening weekend and at the Gamecock Grandslam four weeks later. The duo received AVCA/collegebeachvb.com National Pair of Week too for its performance at the Gamecock Grandslam.

That weekend at the Gamecock Grandslam began a dominant stretch for Coppola and Nuss which saw them win 13 matches in a row, all in straight sets.

Coppola and Nuss went 5-0 at the CCSA Tournament, pushing LSU to its best finish ever at the tournament as runners-up. For the second straight season, LSU got a berth to the NCAA Championship and Coppola and Nuss earned one victory there which came in LSU’s 3-1 defeat of South Carolina.